Bradley Urges Extension of Housing Tax Credit

Mayor Tom Bradley on Thursday urged California’s congressional delegation to support the extension of an annually funded federal low-income housing tax-credit program that has generated 3,000 affordable units in Los Angeles over the past five years.

Congress has not indicated whether it will renew the 5-year-old program, which provides $300 million worth of tax credits each year to investors who purchase interests in housing for low-income tenants over a 10-year period. Without the program, scheduled to end in December, many proposed affordable housing projects in Los Angeles will have to be scrapped, Bradley said.

The problem could be most acute on Skid Row, where more than 8,000 low-income people live in or near 65 flophouses congregated within a 50-square-block area, said Alice Callaghan, president of the Skid Row Housing Trust.